Morphological characterization of various small dessert yellow banana varieties in Uganda: exploring fruit finger diversity

Abstract

The objective of this study was assessing the morphological differences of 12 selected small dessert fruits in Uganda in which three of each were representing the varieties of KB, KJ, SN and F basing on the characteristics of their fruits (fingers). The varieties were evaluated regarding their fruit length, circumference, length of pedicel, width of pedicel, pH of pulp and total titratable acidity. The variety KB had the highest circumference of 11.80 cm followed by KJ, then SN and F had the smallest of 9.63 cm. The overall mean circumference was 11.05 cm. variety F had the largest length of 12.97 cm and KB the smallest of 9.03 cm. SN had the largest length of pedicel and KB the smallest of 1.87 cm and 0.90 cm respectively. F had the largest width of pedicel of 1.13 cm and KJ the smallest width of pedicel of 0.73 cm. Variety F had the largest pH value of 5.06 and variety KB had the least pH of 4.59. The titratable acidity of the varieties increased in the order F<SN<KB<KJ. Brix (sugar content) was highest in variety SN at 23.8±4.6, followed by F at 19.0±0.4, KJ at 18.3±2.8 and variety KB had the least total sugar content of 17.5±4.0 g 100g-1. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a statistically significant difference in the morphological characteristics of the different varieties. Except sugar content of the varieties, pH and TA were also statistically significantly different (p<.05) among the varieties. The differences in the characteristics evaluated varied due to differences in variety and according to the Tukey post hoc test, variety KB and SN had no significant differences in banana length, KJ and F had no significant differences in their circumference, no statistically significant difference was there in pH of the varieties KJ, F and SN (p>.05), no statistically significant differences in pedicel length were as well found among the varieties KJ, F and SN and all the varieties showed no differences in their total sugar content (p>.05).